UH delegates present at Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The University of Hawaiʻi is once again being featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. One of this year’s themes is “One World, Many Voices,” which highlights the preservation of indigenous languages.

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival invited UH back this year to share how the university helped stop the demise of the Hawaiian language. Students, faculty and staff from UH Mānoa, UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College are sharing how language embodies culture, history, values and world views for centuries and into modern times. The UH exhibit features presentations, “talk stories” and demonstrations that cover taro pounding, Niʻihau shell making and non-instrument celestial navigation.